The Favorite Publisher Trick that Makes Their Digital Audiences Look Bigger and Younger

The pressure is on digital publishers to show they have massive reach and a young readership. That means reporting a big comScore audience number with plenty of those millennials who brands want so badly to engage with.

The reason is simple: Many media plans have an arbitrary cutoff point for participating publishers. So publishers need to show big numbers. But this can in turn rewards tricks to inflate the size of their audiences and make them appear younger than they actually are. They even have a favorite tactic: Package up other independent sites into their comScore audience number.

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